An Unborn Child is A Human Life

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, our country was sent on a journey a week ago to see how we would respond to the Dobbs decision. This decision challenges all Americans to decide where they will stand on the abortion issue.

It is particularly a challenge to the churches of this country who are supposed to provide moral guidance to the country as to where to stand.

These are decisions that will have to be made by the citizens, in part, when they vote. Decisions have to be made by State legislators, district attorneys as to whether they are going to uphold pro-life laws, and perhaps, most important of all, individual decisions that are going to have to be made by women or families who are in a situation in which some people are going to try to persuade them to have an abortion.

It is interesting when we talk about this to remember that in 1973, as far as I can determine, no State between California on the West Coast and New York on the East Coast had entirely open-ended pro- abortion laws. Nevertheless, at a time where we didn't really have ultrasounds, every other State ruled that something barbaric was going on.

You just heard other statistics--we know at 6 weeks a child has a heartbeat; 7 weeks, feels pain; 10 weeks, jumps if startled, and has fingers and toes; 15 weeks, sense of taste.

Obviously, anybody who says: What would God want us to do in this situation realizes a human being has been created by God, and that human being should be cherished and kept alive.

It was, again, apparently the clergy in 1973, or society as a whole, did a good job of informing people that something so horrific was happening in abortion that it should be barred and made illegal. Since that time, the clergy of this country and the churches of this country have had 49 years to weigh in with the public and guide them as to how they should think. We are soon going to find out what a good job they did or a bad job they did.

In any event, we thank the Supreme Court for reaching the right decision. Now we put the ball in the court of Americans as a whole, whether they will respond, recognizing the precious lives that we have to protect in America, or if they are going down the shoot toward more of an atheistic view of the world, similar to countries like North Korea, Red China, countries in which atheism is part of their roots.

The challenge is yours, America--the challenge to the churches.

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